South Florida's ECOSTRIKE are streaming a new track from their upcoming 12" on BBB records. Fans of Strife, Spawn, Outspoken, and even early Earth Crisis should not skip out on this one! You can stream the new song, titled "Standing Hard", here.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

One King Down released their EP "Bloodlust Revenge" 20 years ago. Many fans still consider this to be their defining release but the record never saw a re-release.

Now, Equal Vision records will be reissuing the record with remastered sound, updated artwork and bonus content (which will be revealed at a later date).

The album is up for preorder now at the band's MerchNow store and includes new and classic shirt designs (Champion Basketball Jerseys!!!). You can preorder the record here: One King Down MerchNow Store

Friday, August 18, 2017

In continuing the tradition of Stuck In The Past distroing awesome 90's Japanese Hardcore, I'm excited to finally have been able to upload the Straight Savage Style '98 Demo. It was quite an undertaking tracking down a physical copy of this tape to rip as the songs don't seem to be online anywhere else - save for another version of "Hardcore Pride" that appears on a Call For Unity comp - after exhaustive searching. Thanks to my friend Ogden for picking up the tape in Europe for me. 3 tracks of crushing late 90's death metal-infused Japanese Hardcore at it's finest:

Monday, July 17, 2017

Something tells me that this post isn't really going to need much of an introduction. I've always heard that Slugfest put out three demo tapes during their time together. This post contains a 320k rip of one of them, and I'm always still on the hunt for the other two. I battled lots of tape hiss on this one, and it's still present, but reduced from where it was.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

North Carolina is slowly but surely becoming a powerhouse for up-and-coming hardcore with a strong sense of unity, excited new kids, and great bands. A handful of these releases do an awesome job paying homage to influences from the Early 90's that are sure to quickly become favorites for readers of this blog.

The newest North Carolina HC output is an incredible demo from Magnitude. Straight Edge hardcore in the vein of Strain and early Trial. It's awesome to see this style being played by a new band in 2017, as there aren't too many other bands trying to nail this sound. The songs are catchy and intelligent in a way that does a service for fans of this particular niche of hardcore while not being so specific to alienate those who aren't familiar or into the bands that Magnitude is influenced by.

A handful of members of Magnitude also play in Search For Purpose, another awesome straight edge band from Charlotte, NC. Less moshy and more introspective than the aforementioned Magnitude demo, SFP's demo takes cues from Outspoken and Early strife, while their newest release, a two song promo tape, veers further into emotional and melodic territory with nods to bands like Drift Again. Either way, this band would sound right at home on the "Words To Live By, Words To Die For" comp, so if you're a fan of New Age Records early to mid 90's output, be sure to check this band out!

Hailing from Cincinnati, OH, Treason was formed out of necessity. With hardcore roots going back decades, the band felt a sense of obligation to represent the hardcore community and give back to what has given them such memories and purpose. Formed in 2017, Treason has members of Suffocate Faster, LAW, Culture, One Nation Under and Blood Has Been Shed, giving the band its own uniqueness both in sound and message.

“I remember coming up and buying anything New Age Records put out. Back in the stone age there was no internet or band camps. You bought records based on word of mouth and what the labels were pumping out. It’s an honor for us to be on releasing a record on a label that has given so much to our community and continues to share new bands with everyone” said Rich Thurston.

New Age Records founder Mike Hartsfield said, “I was so excited when Rich approached us as a possible home for Treason. We haven’t had many heavy hardcore bands recently on the label. Sometimes people forget New Age was the foundation for bands like Unbroken & Mean Season. We are thrilled to have Treason as part of the family”.

The debut 12” EP will be released this summer as the band sets out for numerous live shows in support as well as playing at this year’s “This Is Hardcore” fest.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

In my endless quest to produce a decent sounding version of the Earth Crisis - Demo 1993, I finally got my hands on multiple cassette copies. I ripped each full tape to WAV files, isolated the best sounding version of each song, adjusted levels and remastered as a final group for continuity.

In regards to Time Of Strife and whether it belongs as a part of this demo recording, I contacted Scott Crouse, and he gave me a rundown:

There are actually 2 versions of Time Of Strife. The demo was originally 9 songs, but we didn’t like that version of Time Of Strife so we never included it on any copies that went to other people. It was mostly clean vocals and musically pretty different than where it ended up on the Structure Records comp. So the short answer is no, I think the version you have was not done in the same recording session. I don’t know if the anyone has the “original” version anymore. I think only band members would have it and I’m pretty sure none of us even have a copy of that demo.

As you can imagine, there are still limitations when dealing with 25 year old cassettes, but I think this is, by far, the best sounding version of the demo out there. For all the total nuts out there, here it is, in your choice of 320k mp3s or FLAC files.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

I'm sure you're all familiar with Chicago's early 90s heavy hitters, Everlast, thanks to their Drown The Self 7" that was released on Chapter Records in 1994. This demo from 1993 is no less of a juggernaut, but has a bit of a more raw feel with the recording. It contains four tracks that were not re-recorded for the 7" or Cold War compilation.